Dear Marlen,

It’s hard to believe that I’m already sitting on my bed writing this reflection paper to wrap up the semester. It seems like it was just yesterday that I walked into a classroom of over fifty students and took my seat in one of those horrendously uncomfortable wooden seats. I’m so thankful that we ended up moving into a different classroom, because sitting in those chairs for an entire semester would nearly have been enough to get me to withdrawal from your class.

With that being said, I somehow managed to survive. I got through all of the books, the blogs and the poems. I got through the 52,614 extra readings, videos and various other links we had throughout the semester. I somehow managed to conquer getting up at 7AM to make it to your class every day. This truly was a feat for me, as I failed to do so with any amount of consistency in my previous English course.

The fact that I managed to get through this course on top of attending it regularly should tell you a few things about not only your class, but you as a person. First and foremost, you are a truly fantastic person as it pertains to your job. I envy your work ethic and your dedication to not only your work, but your students. It makes it a lot easier for someone like me who hates mornings to wake up and trudge a mile to class when you know your professor loves what he or she does, and also gives a shit about their students.

You run your class in such a way that rarely was I ever uninterested in the material being covered, group discussion, or class discussion. It’s very rare for me to take note on how a professor goes about teaching, or how much they truly love what they do as well as what they’re teaching to their students, but I see that within you. I loved when you’d sit and lecture for ten minutes without stopping, almost as if you were in a world of your own, but all the while trying to invoke something in your students.

I know that you’re trying like hell to get out of Indiana, Pennsylvania and move on to greener pastures, and I don’t think anyone will fault you for that. But I would suggest, no matter where you end up, whether it’d be in front of a class of 2^nd graders, or a prestigious university, to never change your style of teaching, of communicating, or connecting with your students. What you do simply works. The way you expect 110% out of everyone, just as you give 110% to everyone, yet are there to pick someone up if they need help, works. The way you give each and every one of your students chance after chance to succeed when it seems as if other professors do the exact opposite, works. The way you relate with your students on everything from music to technology, works.

With that being said, there’s nothing in terms of how you teach (taking the class curriculum out of the equation for the time being) that I would change. You seem to have this concoction you’ve created that works for you, and works for those that you teach.

As far as the curriculum, this semester, I’d have to say it all played a vital role in the information you were trying to get across to your students. The only major problem I had throughout the semester was the fact that were forced to use various forms of poetry which I believe in some ways hindered my ability to write my best poetry. However, I understand your goal was to expose your students to as many different forms of poetry as you could, which in the long run I believe is more important than me wanting to use just a few different types of poetry for my own selfish reasons.

As far as the books you chose, they all played a vital role in relaying the message you wanted throughout the semester. With the exception of Siddhartha, I legitimately enjoyed reading all the other text you chose.

With that being said, I’d like to thank you a million times over for showing me that there are still professors out there that care about their students as much as they love teaching. Your “I’m me, and that’s all I’ll be so take it or leave it” attitude is refreshing, and having you this semester will have a lasting impact on me throughout the rest of my college career as it has shown me it’s possible to work your ass off, yet still enjoy what you’re learning about. It’s truly been a pleasure (95.6% of the time). :]

Thanks again,

Nick Townsend

After this semester, I am going to finish the Spring 2010 semester. Even writing 2010 is weird to me, and makes me realize how fast time truely does go. It seems like just last year I was sitting at my Grandfather’s house with my family, freaking out and thinking that the world was coming to an end thanks to the Y2K bug.

I want to wrap up this year, and then stop and see where my life is really heading. I love learning, and education is my biggest priority, but after this school year is out I will already be 23, and I still am just as lost in terms of where I want to go with my life as I was my junior year of high school. I need to shatter this idea in my head that I have life is a distinct time line that I need to follow or I’m going to be unsuccessful because to be honest, it’s destroying me and making it hard to enjoy life.

My hope is that I can find a way to go back to Pittsburgh with my closest friends and just enjoy my life again, because IUP, and my college education has seemingly taken that all away from me.

When it comes down to it, I suppose the relevance of the book as is incorporated into the class depends on how accurate it actually is. As far as that goes, all I can do is speak for myself, and as I mentioned in one of my very first blogs, the archetype ‘given’ to me upon taking the various ‘tests’ labeled me as the ‘Fool’, which, even after all I’ve gone through in this class, I still agree with.

The book itself is a little dry. It’s not like reading a book that has a plot, climax, etc, which makes it very hard to get into. The only parts I was really interested in were those that I felt related to me. It was sort of like high school where, when you receive the yearbook, you go through it just to see if there are any pictures of you, and maybe a few friends, but other than that you really don’t give two shits.

With that being said, the archetypes are very interesting in terms of how often I now relate them to nearly all forms of media I encounter, something I will most likely do well beyond exiting this class. Teaching the archetypes is essential to the format of this class, and something that I believe should be continued as long as the class is taugt in this manner.

I absolutely hate labels, but I also hate when my life is unstructured. So if we didn’t have labels for society, one would think that it would be one huge clusterfuck of confusion. However, there are certain labels that are not benefitcial to you or I. Example: criminal. Is this necessary for someone that went to jail for sailing marijauna? I think not. Homosexual? Do we label straights as heterosexual in every day life? No. People don’t usually look at a straight person and automatically think STRAIGHT, but you can bet your ass quite a few people look at homosexuals and their first thought is something of the sort: QUEER, FAGGOT, GAY, or something extremely ridiculous. Is such a label good for you, or I? No. It serves no purpose.

Labels: Let’s burn them up and spit them out like we do with all those labeled in our society that don’t fit into our social norms.

Sofia is a very strong willed, in your face woman who doesn’t break, and rarely bends for that matter to the wants and needs of those who have done her wrong or have the worst of intentions. She didn’t break as she was being belittled by a group of white men who had surrounded her nor did she give in to her husband Harpo when he beat her.

Harpo stands out to me because of how strong she is. In a semester that I have been forced to swallow the pill of sexuality in every one of my classes, I can’t help but watch and see how powerful of a woman Sofia is throughout both the film and the book. The fact that she is both African American and a woman makes her strength all the more powerful. You’d think that as a college-aged white male I wouldn’t give two shits about something like this, but I’m a firm believer that, especially in America, we should all have equal rights no matter your race or gender, and seeing this is a breath of fresh air.

Another reason Sofia had an influence on me throughout the story is the stronger side of personality was something that I related to very easily. Growing up I constantly felt like I got the short end of the stick in nearly every situation, and people, for whatever reason, felt that they could take advantage of me. The only way to overcome such verbal and physical abuse is to have a voice for yourself, as Sofia does, which was something I understood on nearly every level possible.